


The Dark Road

by professortennant



Series: Longmire Season One Post-Eps [1]
Category: Longmire (TV)
Genre: F/M, Post-Episode: s01e02 The Dark Road, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 18:46:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18212171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/professortennant/pseuds/professortennant
Summary: “Gotta say, Vic, I’ve never had a deputy get on a stripper pole for information before.”“Yeah, well, you clearly haven’t been hiring the right kind of deputy.”“Clearly.”





	The Dark Road

Vic waited for the muffled sounds of Walt’s rumbling voice to stop before pushing herself up from the desk and heading for his office, stopping to lean against the doorjamb of his open door. 

He was slumped down in his big leather chair, hand absentmindedly running through his hair and his forefinger stroking over his temple and brow. In the soft, muted orange glow of his office lamp, she thought he looked like some noir detective or maybe Sherlock Holmes--y’know, if Sherlock Holmes was a stubborn jackass of a cowboy. 

She rapped her knuckles against the doorframe to draw his attention. He didn’t startle at the noise. Walt was a hard man to startle. She’d know. She’d been trying to rattle and startle him since the day she arrived in Absaroka County. 

Not even her line about a great ass and pole dancing and being a reference for her could do more than draw a stoic, drawling  _No_  from him. 

“You okay?”

He sighed and swiveled in his chair so his forearms were leaning on his desk and he was facing her. She watched as he gathered his thoughts and chose his words carefully--always so carefully. 

“Cady’s seeng someone. And, uh, she won’t tell me who it is.”

Vic snorted and rolled her eyes, moving from her spot and plopping down into her preferred chair in front of his desk, propping up her booted feet on the edge of his desk.

“Well no shit, Walt. You’re her  _dad.”_

He looked annoyed for a moment. “We don’t keep secrets from each other.”

She raised an eyebrow. “C’mon, Walt, be serious. You’re telling me you tell Cady  _everything_?”

His eyes darted down to his joined hands in front of him and he paused a little too long. She knew Walt had ghosts in past, skeletons in his closet--pick your cliché.  Just like she knew he’d given up his insanely expensive coat for a stripper with a cold. 

"That’s what I thought,” she said triumphantly, knocking her heel against the edge of his desk to draw his attention. He met her eyes and she flashed him a toothy grin. “C’mon, Walt. Secrets are part of every family. She’s a grown ass adult. Let her have hers a little longer.”

He sighed and leaned back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head and interlocking his fingers. “You’re probably right,” he grumbled.

“That would mean a lot more if it didn’t sound like it cost you something to admit it,” she said wryly. 

This earned her a smile and she felt her insides squirm as a warm, pleased flush flooded her veins. It was becoming a problem, really, this feeling. More and more she wanted to have Walt’s approval, Walt’s attention, Walt’s smile. The band around her finger was feeling heavier and heavier the more she wanted it. 

“If I were Branch, I hear it’d cost me twenty bucks,” he said pointedly, blue eyes dark and focused intensely on her.

She could feel her cheeks pink up but she just met his gaze defiantly and jutted her chin forward, shrugging. “If you were Branch,” she said in a faux-sweet voice. “I’d tell you to keep your fucking mouth shut and be thankful my very feminine wiles got us the information we needed.”

He grinned at her. “Good thing I’m not Branch, then.” Walt quirked an eyebrow at her. “Gotta say, Vic, I’ve never had a deputy get on a stripper pole for information before.”

“Yeah, well, you clearly haven’t been hiring the right kind of deputy.”

“Clearly.” 

This is what she was starting to live for, these moments of banter and play. The moments when Walt’s stoic cowboy-sheriff act fell away and left just the man behind.

The kind of man who maybe got a little jealous that she had put on such a show in front of Branch, but not him. 

_Not you, Vic. Oden’s seen enough of you today._

She had been pissed that he had stopped her from coming along. Although their department did’t really do  _partners_  in the traditional sense--their force was much too small--she’d always fancied herself and Walt to be as close to partners as she could imagine. 

Riding shotgun in the Bronco, her boots on the dash, was as much her desk as her setup in the office. 

But a part of her mind had spun and wondered what it had  _really_  meant. Walt had a way of saying one thing and meaning another. She’d spent many a night turning his words, his gestures and facial expressions over and over in her head, analyzing and interpreting until she wasn’t sure what the hell he had said in the first place. 

Vic was just drawing on the well of courage in her gut to confront him about his comment when he stood abruptly from his desk and adjusted his low-riding Wranglers. 

“I should, uh, let you go.” She watched as Walt’s eyes fixed themselves firmly on his boots, hiding his expression from her. “Ruby said Sean was back in town. So, uh, why don’t you take off and I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow?”

Something about the dismissal rankled at her and she leaned back more firmly in her favorite chair and uncrossed and recrossed her feet on his desk.

“Y’know, Walt, I really fucking hate it when people tell me what to do and you’re falling into a pretty shitty habit today of doing it.”

She dropped her voice low and added a drawling, twang to her voice in a poor approximation of his voice. “’ _Not you, Vic, you stay here.’_ And now it’s ‘ _You should go, Vic.’”_  

She finally stood and, with a glare and a pointed finger in his direction, she firmly told him--in a way only Vic could: “Cut the shit, Walt.”

He put his hands up in placation, stepping around the desk towards the side exit of his office where his sheepskin coat and beaver hat were waiting for him. 

“I’m not gonna win with any of the women in my life today, am I?”

The self-deprecating comment made her lips twitch up into a smile, unwittingly, and she shook her head at him, deciding to forgive him. 

This time.

“Damn straight, you’re not.” But there was no real heat behind her words and they both knew it.

Walt adjusted the hat on his head and tugged at the lapels of his jacket before opening the door wide for her, grinning sheepishly at her in a way that told her he knew that she’d forgiven him, too.

She rolled her eyes and disappeared through the door, waiting for him to lock the door to his office and follow her down the steps out of the office. He was a big, hulking presence to have at her back and like it or not, she felt better for having him there. 

Out on the sidewalk, where she was supposed to go left to her truck and he to the right to the Bronco and they were meant to go their separate ways--back home to Sean, back home to an empty house and a six-pack of Rainier--Vic found herself dawdling, as she had started doing more and more often at the end of the day when they were supposed to be saying their goodbyes. 

Walt ducked his head and scuffed the tip of his boots against the sidewalk. 

“Well, uh, g’night, Vic.”

“Night, Walt.”

He touched her arm briefly, just a quick press of his fingers against her elbow in a parting gesture, before turning on his heel and slipping into his Bronco.

She stood there on the sidewalk and watched the bright red lights of his truck disappear around the corner, the ghost of his touch burning brighter and heavier than the ring around her wedding finger.

_Fuck._

**Author's Note:**

> me during this rewatch: i'm not gonna do a post-ep for every ep  
> me now: okay.....maybe i will
> 
> as always, this fic isn't beta'd and i wrote it in the text post function of tumblr and my keyboard keys are falling apart so...all mistakes are mine.


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